infrastructure

It's one of those urban jokes: as soon as a street is repaired, someone comes by to dig it up to make some infrastructure repair. The City of Niagara Falls and the Niagara Falls Water Board are in cooperation to make sure that doesn't happen - this time.

The visual images on television were very clear: Republicans were vocal in their praise of President Trump's State of the Union message, while Democrats were not wearing out their hands with applause. However, there was one issue that seemed to cross the aisle: infrastructure.

There is a standard complaint among politicians, that Erie County government does not spend enough money maintaining and nurturing its infrastructure. That is especially true of the legislators who represent communities outside of Buffalo, where the county has roads, bridges and many other things. However, the new chair of the Legislature's Economic Development Committee is promising a proactive approach.

Republicans and Democrats in both houses of the New York State Legislature met Wednesday to hear a very long State of the State message about the issues affecting their political perspective and their districts.

A report issued Tuesday by the New York State Comptroller's Office indicates 52 bridges within Erie County, owned by either the county or a municipal government, are "structurally deficient." The report also suggests it would cost $27.4 billion to fix local government-owned spans statewide.

Local governments will have more money to spend on paving and other road repairs. The state budget boosts spending on road, bridge and other infrastructure needs, as State Senator Chris Jacobs recently announced.

Saying that the nation's infrastructure has been neglected for too long, while the U.S. has spent billions fixing roads and bridges in overseas locations including Iraq and Afghanistan, Congressman Brian Higgins has introduced a trillion-dollar proposal to fix domestic roads, bridges and waterways over the next five years.

With the Trump Administration likely to push for Public-Private Partnerships for its trillion-dollar infrastructure plans, around 1,200 people are gathered in Toronto starting Monday for a conference on those partnerships and how they have worked around the world.

Nearly eight years after a major funding cut for capital improvements, several state lawmakers and labor organizers representing Western New York are calling for a so-called "math error" to be corrected.

Over the past two weeks, as Governor Andrew Cuomo has laid the stepping stones to his 2016 State of the State and Executive Budget Address, local leaders have been vocal over what they hope to hear. High on the list – upstate infrastructure.

As winter is left behind for the more construction-friendly weather of spring, the City of Buffalo begins its 2015 paving season. Mayor Byron Brown said residents across Buffalo will see the work of over $64 million in projects.

More than 2,000 of Canada's mayors and senior municipal leaders will gather in Niagara Falls over the next two days. They're taking part in the annual conference of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. WBFO's Dan Karpenchuk looks at some of the issues that top the agenda.

A number of trouble spots on area roads and bridges are scheduled to be fixed this construction season. Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz has released a list of projects totaling nearly $36 million.